Editor's Note
It is with pleasure that I introduce the first issue of the ninth volume of the Revista Brasileira de Lingüística Aplicada to our readers. I do believe that the papers here assembled represent a relevant sample of the productivity of work and reflection within the domain of Applied Linguistics.
The ensuing sequence of articles is based on an attempt to chart two leading thematic blocks in this issue. The first of such blocks is structured with papers that delve into issues related to text and interaction, inviting readers to re-visit constructs and conceptualization that allow for the addressing of the processes that underlie the several modes of discourse practices. The second block is formed by papers that focus on topics related to the teaching of languages, covering issues such as teachers' and students' beliefs, and teacher training and education.
The present issue eventuates with a book review that coincidentally seems to intertwine the two major themes found in the entire ensemble.
The first thematic block ranges across the first eight papers in this issue. Wagner Silva presents preliminary results of a study of text genre choice for educational purposes. Adopting participant ethnography as a method, the author critically examines the ecological validity of certain pedagogical practices and suggests reflections on possibilities of student empowerment. Renata Silva's essay explores the notion of "sphere" in the work of Bakhtin and the notion of "discursive space" in the work of Pêcheux, considering the probable inadequacy of attempts to make such notions overlap in analyses of linguistic materiality. In Rezende's paper the reader interested in online pedagogies will be introduced to the concept of "virtual thematic workshops" and to the analysis of interactional processes in a teaching experience that instantiates multimodality. In the fourth article in this issue Vieira develops the analysis of song lyrics written by composer and writer Chico Buarque de Holanda, by way of the application of Emile Benveniste's theoretical constructs. The author demonstrates through her analysis of the songs how the relationship between utterer and addressee (regarded as central for notions of authorship and subject) is constituted by discursive strategies. The study by Rodrigues-Júnior analyzes samples of Brazilian published work within the school of Critical Discourse Analysis in an attempt to situate Brazilian work with regards to a broader recent debate on methodological issues posed by this approach to language studies. Gomes-Santos and Almeida offer an analysis of a literacy classroom that applies the concept of question-answer dialogic-pair. They expand the primary textual and interactional dimension of such notion, bringing into it an articulation with the analysis of the "professional gestures" of the observed teacher. Raquel Recuero makes a contribution to the understanding of computer-mediated communication. The author analyzes differences between conversations mediated by weblogs and photoblogs by applying concepts of virtual ethnography and conversation analysis. The first block eventuates with the article by Eliana de Barros. The author analyzes exemplars of the linguistic realization of verb tenses in texts written by a movie reviewer from Londrina, in the state of Paraná (Brazil), arguing for a view of verb tenses as a discursive mechanism of which processing in movie reviews produces effects that constitute such genre.
The second proposed thematic block covers the seven last articles in this issue. Ferreira relies on interviews with in-service teachers who took part of an experience in Adult and Youth Education in which the notions of "bilingualism" and "research" are planned to be integrated. The author discusses the concept of intercomprehension as a possible guideline for the emergence of research as a central tenet in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language in his local school system. Vicente and Ramalho study English as foreign language tertiary students' beliefs about errors. The authors analyze interactional data gathered through the recording of exchanges between teacher and students, and their analysis departs from the concepts of "politeness" and "face". The paper by Greggio, Silva, Denardi and Gil presents results of a systematization study of fifty-one exemplars of research work on language teacher education produced at the English Graduate Program at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. The authors of the study synthesize research foci, themes and conclusions from their corpus of research work, pointing towards potential directions of development in their filed of interest. In the article by Pessoa and Scbba the theme of reflection-generated teacher change is addressed. The authors discuss the roles of experiences, self-observation, peer-observation, and theory in change processes through their analyses of reflective sessions conducted with three teachers. The work authored by Andrade, looks at what is voiced by student-teachers regarding language learning. Motivated by the integration of theories of discourse and the Lacanian school of psychoanalytic theory, the author questions representations of a social demand for language education, and advocates the possibility that students training to be language teachers establish new relationships with the foreign language and the learning process. The following text, authored by Elaine Mateus, presents thoughts about research in English teachers' education. The author points towards ways of overcoming the radical dichotomy between scientific knowledge and teachers' knowledge, and she argues for the point of view of the "social-historical-cultural turn" which, according to her, has been recently led by the fields of knowledge within the human and social sciences. The last text in the present issue is authored Ribas. The author reports pedagogical interventions aimed at raising cultural awareness among Brazilian public school students of English as foreign language. She discusses the effects of cultural awareness in students' motivation.
At the end of this issue readers will find Fernanda Magalhães' review of the book Estratégias de Leitura: Texto e Ensino ("Reading Strategies: Text and Teaching"), by Maria Aparecida Lino Pauliukonis and Leonor Werneck Santos. The review presents a book that will certainly be very useful to all who seek to bridge contemporary linguistic research on discourse and the teaching of languages.
Enjoy your reading!
Ricardo Augusto de Souza
Editor
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
11 Mar 2013 -
Date of issue
2009
